Wednesday, December 24, 2008

So Much

It's Christmas Eve morning, a little too early to be up on a holiday, and I just can't sleep.

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Our first Christmas together, I asked ECG for a wind chime.

He built me a wind chime that, when the striker hits a chime, triggers an electric circuit signaling a small speaker to shout out a Mr. T-ism. Each chime has a different Mr. T saying. My favorite is "First name Mister. Middle name Period. Last name T." Unfortunately, if I leave this somewhere in the open, the wind will make neighbors think that Mr. T is at our house, suffering a nervous breakdown as his catchphrases interrupt one another and he argues with himself. So, we've hung this wind chime in the bathroom, where unsuspecting guests occasionally knock it and are met with the sudden shouts of Mr. T.

Believe me, this gift has elicited hours and hours of laughter, and I love it. One thing that ECG always succeeds at is making me laugh.

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School ended Friday for two weeks, and the last kids left my room in a sugar-crazed high. The trafficking of sugar on the last day of school before winter break reaches epidemic proportions, and even the teachers hit the cookies, the candies, the sticky-too-sweet cinnamon rolls, and soar to sugar enhanced giddiness, only to crash soon after the school bell rings. I tried to stay a bit after school and put my classroom back into some semblance of order before I left it for two weeks, but I just couldn't make myself be there. I wanted to be home. I wanted my vacation to begin.

And begin it has. Just a few days in, and I've already felt the tension springs start to release. This relaxation doesn't just come from knowing that I have two weeks of break, although that does play heavily into the equation, but the other major factor is something even more special than two weeks of break. Friday night, just before dinner, ECG gave me what he built me for Christmas, something I've wanted for forever, but now have the place to put it:

A wind chime. This one doesn't say Mr. T-isms.

The last ringing of the school bell disappears from my memory when I have this resonating instead. Go ahead, play the clip, see if you don't instantly feel more relaxed.

That is another thing ECG can do: relax me almost instantaneously. I'm away from home now, at his parents' house for the holidays, and I don't have the wind chime to listen to. Instead, I think it might be a better idea to crawl back into bed, nudge my way under ECG's sleepy arm, and drowse in the comfort of him.

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This is my first Christmas married to this man, and I know that this marriage is the best gift I've ever received.